Description:
"Occident" is a bitter comedy about the people who want to
emigrate from Romania, and about those who stay behind. The movie has
a rich, interesting structure: there are three different stories - a
weeklong in the film - that cross, interconnect and happen in the same
period. The characters influence each others lives, sometimes even
without knowing. Main characters from one story become secondary
characters in another story. At the same time, scenes from the first
part of the movie bring unexpected facts when seen the second or the
third time. The stories do not have just one ending: the first story
ends in each of the third parts in a different point, suggesting
radically different solutions for the characters. The way in which
the director fits time and links events together often produces
thematically unexpected results.

Born in Iasi, Romania, in 1968, Cristian
Mungiu graduated from the University of Iasi with a degree
in English and American Literature. For a period, he worked as an
English language teacher, newspaper journalist, and radio/TV
journalist and entertainer.
In 1998, Cristian Mungiu graduated from the Academy for Theatre and
Film in Bucharest. His graduation film, "The Hand of
Paulista", represented Romania at the student Oscar awards in
1999. Cristian Mungiu made three other shorts: "Nothing by
Chance", "The Firemen's Choir" and "Zapping",
all of them well-received at international festivals;
"Zapping" was also screened in 2003 by Canal+. His first
feature, "Occident", had its international premiere at
Quainzaine des Realisateurs in Cannes, 2002. The film was a big hit
in Romania; it also won 10 international awards, including The
Audience Award in Tessalonik, The Fipresci Critics Award in Sofia and
awards for best film in Leeds, Mons, Annonay and Cluj. Cristian
Mungiu also worked as assistant director for several foreign films
shot in Romania: "Capitaine Conan" (by Bertrand Tavernier),
"Train de Vie" (by Radu Mihaileanu), and "Beowulf"
(by Graham Baker).
Besides filmmaking, Cristian Mungiu is also very active in literary
circles: his first book, "Cristian Mungiu: 7 screenplays"
was published at Liternet
Publishing House in 2002. For more information, click here
for an interview with Cristian Mungiu (unfortunately, the interview is
only in Romanian).